


ʟᴏꜱᴛ & ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴏᴄᴏʟ

by lost_in_a_sea_of_fandoms, ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi



Series: Tony's Protocols [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety Attacks, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Going to Hell, I'm Sorry, Iron dad/Spider son - Freeform, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other, POV Peter Parker, Panic Attacks, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Please Kill Me, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Teen Peter Parker, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, dad tony, hahahaha, i'll add more later, post IW
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-07-20 05:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16130549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_in_a_sea_of_fandoms/pseuds/lost_in_a_sea_of_fandoms, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi/pseuds/ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi
Summary: I don’t remember how I got here- in fact, I don’t remember anything.  All I know is that I felt terrified, though I don’t know why, and then suddenly I just… woke up.  I don’t know where I am, I don’t even  know who I am for that matter.  This couldn’t be normal, right?  My head was pounding and I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest at any given second, but I didn’t understand why it was I was so scared and why it felt like I was about to fall apart.  It’s a terrible feeling, but it wasn’t going away......Peter wakes up, reassembled, two weeks after the events of Infinity War with no memories of anything.  The only clue he has to what happened to him- or who he is for that matter- are a series of brief but terrifying flashbacks to Titan, but there isn't enough context to decipher them. Meanwhile, FRIDAY alerts Tony that the "Lost & Found" protocol has been activated and that Peter Parker himself, the boy who died in his arms, has been seen walking around Queens, New York.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I walked over to the seats by the window and sat down. There were a few magazines and newspapers, but not really anything else. I picked one up, Entertainment Weekly, and flipped through the pages. I wasn’t really reading it though, I couldn’t concentrate with everything around and the uneasiness that came with the yellow-orange light that filled the room. Everything about it told me to get out, to run. To run and not look back. It felt like my throat was closing up and I began to hyperventilate. Suddenly, I wasn’t in the police station anymore. I don’t know where I was, but it didn’t look like anywhere around here. I was laying down, a man clutching me in his arms and I was trying to hold on to him. I couldn’t make out his face, but he was trying to help me. I was scared, I couldn’t feel my legs or the tips of my fingers. It felt like I was disappearing and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. “I-I don’t want to go,” I whimpered. I was on the verge of tears when suddenly I was back in the police station, shaking like an earthquake with bugged eyes.

I don’t remember how I got here- in fact, I don’t remember anything. All I know is that I felt terrified, though I don’t know why, and then suddenly I just… woke up. I don’t know where I am, I don’t even know who I am for that matter. This couldn’t be normal, right? My head was pounding and I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest at any given second, but I didn’t understand why it was I was so scared and why it felt like I was about to fall apart. It’s a terrible feeling, but it wasn’t going away.

/There’s no use in just lying around/, I thought, so I pushed up off the ground and looked around in desperate hope to find some source of familiarity. It was dark out, and kind of chilly too. The moon looked pretty low, it was going to be morning, so maybe it’ll help if I can look around in the light? For some reason, I was laying in the middle of the sidewalk right next to a deli-grocery and intersection. A couple cars drove past, and they were so /loud/, so loud that it hurt my ears and I had to cover them. I could hear everything so clearly- the chirping of the crickets, the cooing of the pigeons, and even a few alarm clocks nearby- and the engines of the cars were an unpleasant disruption. Not knowing where to go, I decide to just start walking. Who knows, that might help jog my memory.

As I’m walking, I try to search my memories for anything, even if it’s just a store sign or a face. I have to have a family, right? Are they looking for me? How old am I anyways? People have moms and dads, so that means I should have that too and they could possibly help me. Okay, that’s a start. A plan. Plans are good, especially when you’re starting to freak out because you’re lost and confused and don’t know who you are- 

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

I crashed into a woman walking her dog, a yellow lab, and stumbled back. “Sorry! Oh god, I-I’m so sorry,” I apologize. Great work, me. “I-I didn’t see you there, sorry,” She sighed, brushing off her clothes, “Hey, it’s okay, kid. Just be careful, alright?” Kid? Alright, I must be on the younger side then, but clearly not too young since I’m not too much shorter than her. She and her dog began to walk off in the opposite direction. “Wait,” I called, turning around and catching up to her. “I, um, kinda need your help, if that’s okay?” She looked at me confused. “Uh, sure? What is it?” “I’m lost and not really sure where to go,” I began to explain. “I can’t remember anything either, so I don’t know who to go to for help.” The woman grew a look of pity, lips pursed together as she hummed in thought. “Shit, I’m sorry to hear that, kid. All I can think of is heading down to the police station and seeing what they can do for you.”

She gave me directions to the nearby police station and informed me that I was in Queens, New York. Whether that’s supposed to mean anything to me or not, I don’t know. Though, I guess it is nice to know where I am when I don’t know anything else at all. The sun had begun to come up about ten minutes after we departed, giving the sky a warm orange-like hue. Something about it was off putting.. That fear from when I woke up creeping its way back in. It felt familiar, but different in the same way. Damn, amnesia was weird. That’s what was going on right now, right? Amnesia? It’s funny how I can remember what that was but not even my own name.

Right when I thought I had gotten turned around, the building came into view. When I got inside, I was hit with a wave of sights and sounds and smells. It was too bright, and the ringing of the phones were far too loud. There was an intense smell of Lysol and other sterile products that burned my sinuses. There wasn’t anyone else in the front room except the receptionist who looked like she was not ready to be awake and walked up to her. “Um, excuse me?” I piped up. She turned from the computer screen to me, putting on what I can only assume to be a work smile. “Yes? How may I help you?” The woman spoke with a southern accent. Her phone rang, but as she was about to pick it up, someone else did down the hall. I could hear the conversation, a prank call. Was this level of a hearing range normal? It was irritating and made it hard to focus. “I, uh, think I lost my memory,” I explained. “I don’t remember anything and I wasn’t sure where to go to.” Just like the dog walker, she too gave me a pitied look. “I’m sorry to hear that, sugar. Here, why don’t you go and sit over there and I’ll see if your folks have called lookin’ for you. Do you remember your name at least?” I shook my head /no/. “Poor dear,” She muttered.

I walked over to the seats by the window and sat down. There were a few magazines and newspapers, but not really anything else. I picked one up, Entertainment Weekly, and flipped through the pages. I wasn’t really reading it though, I couldn’t concentrate with everything around and the uneasiness that came with the yellow-orange light that filled the room. Everything about it told me to get out, to run. To run and not look back. It felt like my throat was closing up and I began to hyperventilate. Suddenly, I wasn’t in the police station anymore. I don’t know where I was, but it didn’t look like anywhere around here. I was laying down, a man clutching me in his arms and I was trying to hold on to him. I couldn’t make out his face, but he was trying to help me. I was scared, I couldn’t feel my legs or the tips of my fingers. It felt like I was disappearing and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. “I-I don’t want to go,” I whimpered. I was on the verge of tears when suddenly I was back in the police station, shaking like an earthquake with bugged eyes. 

The magazine had been forgotten. What the hell was that? What was that place, who was that guy? What… what was happening? I wrapped my arms around myself tightly, trying to calm down but I couldn’t. I tried closing my eyes, but I was back there. Then, a car outside screeched to a stop and a rather posh looking man jumped out of the vehicle and hurried inside. Despite the rather expensive suit and sunglasses, he looked a bit disheveled. He looked as distressed as I felt, actually. The man hurried up to the receptionist, seemingly shocked to see him, and opened his mouth to speak before looking my way. 

He stopped in his tracks and I could see him getting teary eyed behind the sunglasses. “Peter,” he gasped. Peter? There wasn’t anyone else around, so was that me? Who was he and how did he know me and where to find me? Before I knew it, I was pulled into a tight embrace from the other. It felt… No, it felt like how I was being held on that place. No.. No I didn’t want to go.. Not again, not again! I felt my legs give out beneath , all my weight now in the hands of the other man as he noticed me panicking and helped me to sit back down in my chair. I gripped and pulled at my own hair, unable to breathe. “Hey, hey,” He spoke in a soothing voice. “It’s okay, Pete. Just breathe. You’re okay, I’m here now. I won’t ever let you get hurt again, okay? Just breathe…” Eventually, I was able to calm down a bit and looked up at him. He gave me a weak smile, and I was desperate to try and remember him. He looked so happy to see me, why couldn’t I remember. “Are, are you okay, kid?” He asked. “I-I’m sorry,” I looked down at my lap, still trembling a bit. “I can’t… I can’t remember anything…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> I'm Samuel, but hey we're friends, so Sam's all good too. This is my first Superfamily attempt, and try at writing first person the entire time, so I hope I didn't do too terrible! I'm always down for feedback, so if I screwed anything up, just let me know :)  
> If you have any suggestions or ideas, please hit me up! Obviously, you'd get the credit. I think it would be kinda cool to have input from people reading my 4am babbles in said 4am babbles. Yeah, I have an idea in my head where this is going, but I'm also a complete idiot so  
> Anyways, thanks for taking time out of your day to read my shit! Love you all and I'll try not to take a year to make chapter two!  
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How hungry are you, kid? Scale of one to ten, shoot. Money isn’t an issue,” He asked. Honestly? An eleven. “Um, maybe an eight or nine?” I replied, accompanied with another stomach growl. Tony smirked, turning back to the drive through speaker while gesturing for me to open the glove compartment while he ordered. Inside were a pack of unopened ear plugs, which I was able to easily open and put in. Though it didn’t drown everything out, it definitely helped as the drive through attendant reread his order. “So, two big breakfasts with hot cakes, three fruit ‘n yogurt parfaits, five steak, egg and cheese biscuits, three sausage burritos, two sets of hash browns, a water bottle, and a coffee. Anything else?...” You could tell they were hoping there wasn’t anything else. “That should be good, unless you want anything else, kiddo?” Tony looked at me. I was already shocked at the amount of food he ordered, so I shook my head /no/. “No, we’re good.”  
> “Alright, that’ll be… $43.86. Please wait at the window for your order, sir.”

I felt my eyes starting to water. Between the confusion and mini-panic attack there, I guess I had gotten a bit overwhelmed. There was something kind of comforting about the man sitting in front of me, but it was still pretty embarrassing about crying in front of what felt like a stranger- an oddly familiar yet not stranger that lifted my head up to look at him. “W-what do you mean you can’t remember anything? Don’t remember Titan, is that it?” There was a look of hope in his eyes, hope that maybe I’d at least remember him? Was he like my dad something? That would explain why he was here. “I don’t remember anything, I-I’m sorry, sir…” I murmured. “Not what Titan was, not who you are, and not who I am either.” 

I could almost see the pang of sorrow that gave him. He looked hurt and confused by what I said and I felt so guilty for not being able to remember. The receptionist coming over to us. “Mr Stark,” She tapped his shoulder. He looked over at her, his hand on my shoulder, and explained is. The man, Mr Stark apparently, hesitantly looked over to her and told her that he knew me and would be taking me with him to help get my memory back before she was able to open her mouth again. I felt a bit wary to go off who knows where with someone it felt like I just met, because of the whole /stranger danger/ thing, but it did seem like that was only on my side. 

“As long as that’s what you want, Pete?” Mr Stark asked me. Well, where else was I going to go? It didn’t seem like he had any bad intent- actually, it seemed like he really cared. That was kind of comforting. “Um, yeah. Y-yeah, that’s okay. Thanks, and sorry again for, y’know….” Mr Stark expression grew serious with underlining sorrow, “Hey hey, it’s not your fault, ‘kay? None of this is your fault, don’t be sorry.” With a nod from me, we both stood up, me after him, and the receptionist walked back to her desk. I still don’t know how she knew his name, since I’m pretty sure he didn’t say it before. Mr Stark put his arm around my shoulder and held me close with a small squeeze, growing tighter and sort of shaky, but then relaxing. 

We walked over to the luxurious car, the other hesitantly removing his arm from me and returning it to his side as we both got into our respective sides of the car. The inside of the car was just like its outer shell- shiny and expensive looking, and even had the whole /new car smell/ thing going on with it along with the smell of Mr Stark’s cologne. There was an odd feeling in the air as we sat there quietly for a moment, Mr Stark resting his forehead on the steering wheel and exhaling a sigh. He looked pretty stressed, and in fairness I kind of was too. I opened my mouth to ask if he was alright before he lifted his head up, starting the car up, and speaking himself. “Alright, kiddo,” Mr Stark began, driving out of the parking lot and down the road. “I know you have a lot of questions, but I do to. I’m, I’m going to need you to help me out here, m’kay? I need a baseline of where you’re at right now if I’m going to help you. That sound alright with you? It’s okay if it’s not though, remember that.” He turned to me, expecting an answer. I mean, he wasn’t asking anything unreasonable, but I didn’t really have anything to tell him. Well, whatever happened inside the station was concerning… but I don’t think I should tell him about that just yet. “Yeah, that, um, sounds alright,” I replied. “I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to tell you though…” He gave me a small pat on the shoulder, “Hey, just do your best.”

With a small nod from me, Mr Stark began speaking again. It was kind of easier to have someone else do the talking, though I know I’ll have to do some part of it. “Good. So, I’ll ask one question, and after you answer, you can ask something. We’ll go back and forth like this so neither of us gets too overwhelmed.” He paused a moment, before continuing, “So, you can’t remember anything at all?”  
“No, not really.. You said that my name was Peter, right?”  
“Mhm. What do you mean by /not really/?”  
“I-I meant no, sorry. What’s your name?”  
“Tony Stark, just Tony is fine though, kid. How’d you end up at the police station?”  
“A lady walking her dog gave me directions and I just walked there. How’d you know where to find me?”  
“You were missing for a while, and I was notified that security cameras had caught sight of you. How’d you meet the dog walker?”  
“I bumped into her when I was trying to figure out where I was. How’d you get security cameras to do that? And, I was missing?”  
“One at a time.”  
“The first question.”  
“I had someone monitoring them. How did you get back here?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“What’s the first thing you can remember?”

I paused, recalling the oddity of waking up on the sidewalk- that unknown fear filling up before my eyes opened… “Hey, you okay, Underoos?” “Yeah, yeah.. Sorry,” I apologized. Underoos? That was an interesting nickname. Maybe that could be my next question? “The first thing I remember is waking up on the sidewalk in front of a deli place. I-I don’t know why I was there, or why I was on the ground, but that’s the first thing I can remember. It was… I dunno, kinda scary.” I mumbled that last part, a bit embarrassed. Before Tony could ask me about it, I went forth with my question, “My turn now- underoos? Where’d that come from?” Tony cracked a smile, turning to look at me for a moment and then back to the road. “It’s hard to understand without the context, but basically you would go around in all spandex kind of like those old fashioned superheroes- the ones in the spandex underwear as a costume. Underoos. Now, you hungry? It’s a bit of a drive, so we might as well have some breakfast for the road.” As if on queue, my stomach growled. I hadn’t noticed it, but I was actually really hungry. Hell,it felt like I could eat a buffet! I looked at the time- 6:25 am. “Is anything opened right now?” Tony got off of what I assumed to be a main road and began driving down a side street, “Well, you can’t go wrong with some 24-hour McDonald’s breakfast, can you?”

The fast food restaurant was not far, maybe five minutes away at most. When we pulled up, the scratching of the speaker was nearly unbearable. It was too loud and screeching, it made me want to get as far away from it as physically possible. Though I resisted that, I couldn’t help some involuntary flinches whenever the person on the other side would speak. Tony looked at me with some concern whenever that would happen, and I had a feeling that he was going to ask about it later. It was kind of worrying for me that it didn’t seem like any of it was bothering other people. Was there something wrong with me?

“Hi, welcome to McDonald’s. Thanks for waiting, may I take your order?”

“How hungry are you, kid? Scale of one to ten, shoot. Money isn’t an issue,” He asked. Honestly? An eleven. “Um, maybe an eight or nine?” I replied, accompanied with another stomach growl. Tony smirked, turning back to the drive through speaker while gesturing for me to open the glove compartment while he ordered. Inside were a pack of unopened ear plugs, which I was able to easily open and put in. Though it didn’t drown everything out, it definitely helped as the drive through attendant reread his order. “So, two big breakfasts with hot cakes, three fruit ‘n yogurt parfaits, five steak, egg and cheese biscuits, three sausage burritos, two sets of hash browns, a water bottle, and a coffee. Anything else?...” You could tell they were hoping there wasn’t anything else. “That should be good, unless you want anything else, kiddo?” Tony looked at me. I was already shocked at the amount of food he ordered, so I shook my head /no/. “No, we’re good.”  
“Alright, that’ll be… $43.86. Please wait at the window for your order, sir.” 

“You didn’t need to order that much,” I told Tony as a removed one of the ear plugs. Not only was that an insane amount of McDonald’s, but it didn’t feel right for him to spend over forty dollars on breakfast. “Please kid, I’ve seen you eat double what I ordered in an ungodly amount of time before,” He pulled up to the window, gave the attendant his credit card, and turned back to me. “Just let me have the coffee and one of the parfaits, m’kay?” I bit down on my bottom lip a little, “I dunno, I kinda feel bad for having you pay for all that..” To my surprise, Tony just started laughing. “Pete, I could /buy/ this place for you if that made you happy. I meant what I said, money is in no way an issue.” He could buy the place? Holy crap! Was he rich or something? We waited nearly twenty minutes until we had all the bags, having slowly got them one by one throughout the time. They seemed shocked to see only two of us in the car, yet ordering this much food. 

Once sorting through the bags and getting what Tony deemed the /starting course/ out, we pulled out of the driveway and onto the mainroad. It seemed like he was right before- I tore through all that food in an ungodly amount of time, which got a smirk out of the driver. “So, where are we going?” I asked in between hash browns.

“Upstate, so about a two hour drive,” Tony replied, getting on the freeway now.   
“Is that where your house is?”  
“It’s definitely bigger than a normal house, but yeah, that’s where we live.”  
“How much bigger?”  
“It’s technically a compound, if that gives you any idea.”  
“Are..are you rich?”  
“Try billionaire.”  
“Holy crap…!” I gasped.  
“Mhm. So if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask for it.”

The car ride was fairly quiet, save for the radio. I felt like a baby- got a full stomach of food and now ready for a nap. I curled up in the passenger seat and leaned up against the window, looking out at the terrain. Although it felt pretty peaceful, there was still a nagging feeling in my gut. It still felt like there was some kind of danger that was about sneak up on us at any moment, but I tried to ignore that and instead focused on trying to understand what the people on the radio were singing. At one point, I tried to fall asleep for a little bit, but as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw that../place/… again. Okay, maybe sleep wasn’t the best idea. 

“I’m glad you’re okay, Pete,” Tony said, breaking the silence. “I didn’t think we were going to ever see you again…”  
“Do.. do you know what happened to me?”   
“Yeah, actually. I do. It’s probably for the best that you don’t remember what happened, it would probably only make things harder on you.”  
Another pause.  
“I do want to know, though..”  
“I know you want to. Just, just trust me, okay? It probably won’t be too responsible of me to just throw that on you right now. I care about you, y’know, and I want to help. We just have to do this one step at a time.”  
“...Alright, I understand.”

Though I wasn’t entirely thrilled about being denied access to my own memories, I guess I did understand what Tony was doing. If I had an idea of what he was trying to describe, I’m guessing it was kind of traumatizing. Maybe it was one of those things that the brain does after a traumatizing experience- blocking out memories- and something occurred that blocked out them all? That’s just a guess though, there’s no way I can know for sure. I don’t think that would explain those weird flashes. Maybe I should bring that up at one point? Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> This took me a while to write, especially since I got an assload of homework dumped on me this week, but I hope you all like it! Also, someone needs to protect Tony’s ass from May when she finds out that he didn’t immediately tell her that Peter was back…. That’ll be fun to write! Anyways, I hope you all liked it, and I’m always open to suggestions and criticism!  
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi ).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lab was like the police station from earlier- too bright and smelling intensely of chemicals and sterile products. Agh, it felt like I was getting a migraine! A man about my height with dark brown hair and glasses wearing surprisingly casual clothes for a doctor starts walking towards us, looking down at a tablet in his hands. Oh, so this must be Bruce. “What do you need, Tones? I was working on the-” He look up from the screen at us, looking like he just saw a ghost. In fact, the tablet slips out of his hands and the screen cracks when it hits the tile floor. “Oh my god, Tony… What did you do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's technically still Friday in my timezone, so I made my dead line. So what if it's only by a few hour? Shhh... (sorry I'm tired). Also, sorry if this one wasn't too interesting. I was going to make it longer, but.... :/ The next one will be better, I promise.

Not too long after, Tony pulled up to what I could only assume to be that compound he was talking about before. Huh, it didn’t really feel like two hours. God, though- this place was huge! I put my feet down from the seat and slipped my shoes- just some simple black slip on vans- back on, my face pressed against the car window. “For someone who can’t remember this place, you sure seem pretty excited,” Tony commented.   
“Well, I mean, it looks pretty cool, so…” I shrugged sheepishly, turning to look at him. “  
“Hey, I’m not complaining.”

The garage doors opened up automatically as the car pulled in. Inside, there were at least a dozen other equally expensive and fancy looking cars- most being black and a navy blue, but a few were red and silver. I got to say, the red convertible off to the left was probably my favorite. Tony was the first to step out- I guess I kind of waited for him to, actually. Just following his lead for now. “Alright, Pete,” He sung his arm over my shoulder again, leading us towards what seemed like a high-tech elevator. “I know you’ve got a lot going through that head of your’s trying to figure things out, but before we get to that, we need to see if you’re healthy and all.” When I didn’t say anything, he kept going. “I’m going to have my friend Bruce give you a check up to make sure you’re not missing a kidney and that everything is as it’s should be. You okay with that?” Although I felt kind of wary of meeting another person, let alone said meeting being like a doctor’s appointment, I decided it was best not to complain. Besides, this guy was Tony’s friend. Maybe we knew each other before? “Alright,” I replied. “Is Bruce like a doctor or something?”  
“Yep,” Tony popped the _p_.

We stepped into the elevator, Tony asking the elevator to bring them to the third floor. He explained to me about the two AIs in the tower after seeing my confusion- one being FRIDAY, the one who was bringing us to Bruce, and the other being Karen who apparently was mine. I immediately wanted to get out as the doors closed, backing up into the corner a bit , accidently bringing Tony back with me. It felt like the walls were closing in and there was suddenly much less breathable air in here than before. Fortunately, I was able to control my breathing, but that didn’t stop the other from giving me a look of concern. “The small space bothering you, Pete?”  
“Yeah.. a bit.”  
“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon. I’m here if you need, too.”  
“Thanks, Tony.”

Oddly enough, that got a bit of a reaction out of him. He squeezed my shoulder a bit and inhaled sharply through his nose, letting it out with with a pained /ha../. “Did I say something wrong?” I asked.  
“No, shit. Of course not kid. It’s, uh, nothing. Don’t worry. “ And just like that, we were at the third floor and the doors opened. I stepped out quickly, feeling it was easy to breathe again. Tony must’ve know that I was going to get out quickly, because for those few rushed stps, he kept up. “Better now?”  
“Yeah, much better.”

Our walk down the corridor of different labs was fairly quiet, save for Tony telling FRIDAY to tell Bruce that he’d be there in a minuet. He was in the room towards the end of the hall, next to yet another elevator. Yeah, definitely rich. The lab was like the police station from earlier- too bright and smelling intensely of chemicals and sterile products. Agh, it felt like I was getting a migraine! A man about my height with dark brown hair and glasses wearing surprisingly casual clothes for a doctor starts walking towards us, looking down at a tablet in his hands. Oh, so this must be Bruce. “What do you need, Tones? I was working on the-” He look up from the screen at us, looking like he just saw a ghost. In fact, the tablet slips out of his hands and the screen cracks when it hits the tile floor. “Oh my god, Tony… What did you do?”

I looked over at Tony, confused and worried. It looked sort of like Bruce was staring at me as he quickly walked over to us. “Wait, what does he mean? Why-” Before I could finish my sentence or Tony could open his mouth, Bruce took my wrist in one hand with his index and middle finger on my pulse and my face in his other hand. He moved it around a bit, looking from me to Tony to me again. “Tones, I know it’s been hard after what happened to Peter, but that doesn’t mean can just go make something that looks like him. That won’t bring him back.” I pull my face away, feeling like I was being prodded at like an object, and Tony pulled me closer to him too, though Bruce’s fingers still rested on my wrist. “Banner!” He yelled. 

So far, I wasn’t getting the best impression from Bruce. He took a step back after Tony raised his voice, a hand hovering over his mouth. “Oh god… Peter, I’m sorry, I didn’t think that was _actually_ you. I mean, after what Tony told me, none of us thought there was any way that-”  
“He doesn’t remember.”  
“Huh?”  
“I said he doesn’t remember what happened. Or anything, for that matter. Amnesia.”  
“So the protocol went off? Where was he?”  
“I found him in a police station in Queens. Before that, he was… kid, where’d you say you woke up again?”  
“Um, o-outside a deli place by an intersection.”  
“That.”

Bruce sat down on a nearby chair, Tony following in suit except for on one of the tables. Since I wasn’t exactly leaving his side anytime soon, it helped me feel safe and was comforting, I did the same. “So, you brought him here to….?” The other man took his head out of his hands, looking up at us.   
“Make sure he’s not missing anything too important.”  
“Can’t imagine getting back was too easy…”  
“What’s he talking about, Tony?”  
“Remember how I said that I knew what happened, but it’d be unfair and irresponsible of me to spring that on to you now? That.”  
“Oh… okay.”

Bruce walked out of the room for a few minutes and returned with a first aid kit. When he returned, he apologized once again for earlier and began to explain to me what he was going to do after asking Tony to step back a bit. “Alright, Peter. I won’t do anything major, since if there was something serious, you’d be in at least some sort of pain. All I’m going to do is check your heart rate, blood pressure, vitals, and ask you a few questions about your memory loss.” He turned to Tony now. “Is he still…?”  
“I don’t know, metabolism and senses are still, so I’d assume so.”  
“Alright, we should probably check that out too.”

Bruce started with my heart rate- which only came up as slightly higher than normal but that was probably a reaction to the stress from these past few hours- and then moved onto my blood pressure. After that came the vitals, which apparently FRIDAY was able to know with a mere scan.

_Besides sides of stress, Mr Parker seems perfectly healthy. Would you like me to let you know if anything changes?_

“Yes,” Tony answered for the other.

Finally, Bruce sat down in front of him on his chair from before- question time. “Alright, I know you don’t have a lot of answers, but just try and answer honestly for me. It’s important to know what kind of amnesia you have so that way we can treat it best. So, let’s start with the first thing you can remember. Tony said you woke up in Queens, right? Tell me about that, why don’t you?”  
“Alright… I just, woke up, I guess. Laying on the sidewalk while it was still pretty dark out, and just started walking.”  
“How were you feeling?”  
“Scared, I didn’t know what was going on and how to fix it.”  
“Do you remember anything right before you woke up? A feeling, a voice, a certain image?”  
“I remember a feeling.. Kind of. It was fear too, but a different kind of fear.”  
“How different?”  
“It was really panicked and the feeling that I couldn’t stop, that I had to keep doing something, but I can’t remember what…”

Tony turned around for a moment, and though I could tell he was trying to be quiet, I could hear a few shaky breaths. Was he okay? Was I worrying him? Maybe I shouldn’t say more..

“How about how you feel other than emotions?”  
“Excuse me?”  
“Sight, sense, smell, hearing, all that. Anything bothering you?”  
“Well, a lot of places seem too bright and hurt my head, same with a lot of sounds. Everything is just _really_ loud and, uh, I feel like I can hear more than I should..”  
“What do you mean by that?”  
“When I woke up, I could hear people’s alarm clocks and a few voices clearly, but I could tell that they were far off.”  
“Don’t worry, there’s a reason for that but I feel like it should be Tony explaining that and not me since he knows more about it. Anything else?”  
“Smells are pretty sensitive too.”  
“And I’m guessing that in here is bothering you from that?”  
“Mhm..”  
“There’s a way to ease up on that, you’re just going to have to reteach yourself to just focus on what’s nearby. It won’t fix everything, but it’ll definitely help you.”

Now, it was the adult’s turn to talk. Bruce told Tony that everything seemed to be in order, and that he’d let him know when he had a treatment plan to get back my memories. He also told him to let him know h=if he noticed anything odd, because this was an “unusual situation”. At the end of it, Bruce said, “I’m glad you got him back, Tones. Just be careful not to overwhelm the kid. See if you can get anything to resurface if you can, but it’s okay if nothing does. It’ll happen sooner or later.” And with that, we walked out as we did walking in- practically attached by the hip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> So! We made quite a bit of progress here, now didn’t we? I had a few self indulgent moments here, so sorry if you guys didn’t really like it. I can always edit them out, just let me know. Also, I may not get Ch 4 up by next Friday (I try to get a chapter out each Friday) because of some shit going on at home/school. Eh, I shouldn’t make excuses. I’m gonna try, guys! Anyways, thanks for reading my bullshit! If you have any critiques, please let me know! I love reading comments.  
> Also, is it weird that this chapter felt kind of short even though it was five pages in Google Docs? Eh, maybe it’s just the whole “never satisfied with your own work” thing.  
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I woke up screaming, trembling, and crying just how I was in my dream. It…. It felt too real to be just a dream. I curled myself up into a ball, pulling at hair and sobbing into my knees. I couldn’t breathe, I could still feel the crushing gravel and cement on top of me, restricting my movements. I wanted out, I wanted to go home..! I felt someone jump, startled, and try to wrap their arms around me. “NO!” I cried. Was it Vulture? I can’t remember who he is, but I know he tried to kill me. Was this him? Trying to finish the job?  
> “Hey, hey. Shh, it’s okay, kid. You’re alright,” Their arms felt as heavy as the cement hell I just woke up from. I looked up to see who it was, to see where I was, and saw Tony looking down at me with a fearful expression to match my own. I was… okay. That Vulture guy wasn’t here, it was just Tony. We were, we were on the couch where we had been watching Star Wars. Must’ve fallen asleep..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, @lost_in_a_sea_of_fandoms is a god sent. They've helped me a hell-load with this chapter and just in general with the shit that's been going on in life. Can all y'all help me shower them in love and appreciation? Thanks <3

“Alright kiddo, what do you say I show you around the compound a bit, see if that jogs a bit of your memory, and then maybe go blow some things up in the labs for a while?”

The way Tony made blowing things up sound so casual was a little surprising, but I can’t say that it didn’t sound exciting. “Are you serious?” I asked, feeling the corners of my mouth turn up a bit. “About the lab thing?” He used the hand that was already on my shoulder to ruffle the top of my hair, grinning himself. 

“I wouldn’t kid you about that. Sure, probably not the most responsible adult thing to do, but when have I been a responsible adult before?”

And so, we took the elevator- which was still not an enjoyable experience- down to the second floor with what appeared to be the main room. There was a huge couch that could easily fit about ten to fifteen people on it and an equally huge flat screen plastered on the wall. Connecting to this family room looking area was the kitchen with what Tony said to be state-of-the-art appliances, majority of them being stainless steel. In them, I could see my reflection, and it was… weird. This is the first time I remember seeing it, and the feeling was hard to describe. It was kind of surreal, and I actually looked quite a bit like Tony. Maybe he was my dad? That wouldn’t make sense with how he said to call him Tony, but it felt like he might be. 

“Hey, Tony?” I asked after Tony finished explaining what was in the different cabinets.   
“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow.  
“Could I ask you something?”  
“I think you just did, kid.”  
“That’s not-”  
“I know, I’m just teasing you. What is it?”  
“Well, um, are you like my dad, or…?”

Apparently, this question came as a surprise to him, since the man seemed to choke on air. Crap! Was I not supposed to say that? “Sorry! Sorry, Mr Stark, I-I didn’t mean to-” I’m not sure why I called Tony mister right there, but I was too preoccupied with being concerned about his reaction. 

“Peter, kid, calm down,” Tony told me, putting a hand out as if to tell me to stop. “I just, well, you caught me off guard with that question. That’s all.”  
“I’m guessing that the, uh, answer was no then?” There was a tinge of disappointment in my voice that I didn’t expect.  
“Well… shit, it’s complicated. Technically, or biologically, I’m not your father.”  
“Who is then?”  
“Let me finish. You’re still like a son to me, the kid I never had.” Tony looked off, muttering something under his breath before breathing out. “We never really talked about this before you lost your memories, and I have no clue why I’m bringing this up now.. Probably at the most complicated time for you too.”

I was a bit confused, to say the least. After all, this seemed complicated already for someone with context of the situation, let alone for someone without it like myself. I opened my mouth to respond to him, but Tony cut me off with another hand shake, this one closer to his person than to mine, “Y’know, let’s hold on to that until you can remember a little more, yeah?”   
“Yeah, “ I nodded, still trying to understand what just happened. “That makes sense. Sorry for asking, since, well..”  
“It’s alright, Pete. Don’t worry. Now, let’s get back to the tour now, shall we?”

There a hallway extending from the main room that held most of the bedrooms in the compound. There seemed to be quite a few, and currently in use as well, but I’m not sure by who. Towards the end of the hall, Tony showed my room on the right and his own right across from it on the left. He slid the door open to mine, and I have to say, I was kind of amazed at how cool it was. On the ceiling, there were some of those glow in the dark sticky stars and it looked like a full on solar system. There were posters on the wall of science puns- which I could thankfully remember that knowledge to understand- and movies like Star Wars and Star Trek. Though I couldn’t exactly remember the plots of the movies, they were still vaguely familiar. The bed was huge with soft looking set sheets with black web-looking lines across them and matching blue pillow covers, but without the pattern. “Wow, this looks so cool!” I smiled. 

Then, I noticed something odd- there was a white board stuck to the ceiling. “Wait, what’s that?” I asked, pointing at the oddity.   
“Oh yeah, you stuck that up there and said that you ‘think better upside down’.” Tony used air quotes as he quoted me.   
“But, the ceilings are high, how would I be up there in the first place?” It was a reasonable question to ask, right? Tony walked me over to one of the walls, hand on my shoulder, and turning me to look at him.   
“Alright,” He spoke. “I’m going to have you try something, but don’t freak out, m’kay?” Well, that certainly wasn’t vague. But, I was curious, so I went along with it. Tony put his arms under my own and told me to put my foot on the wall.   
“But, won’t my shoes leave a mark on there?” I asked, _that_ being my question about what was happening.  
“Take them off then,” I felt Tony shrug as he said that, him still holding my arm as I removed the slip on shoes, and attempted to apparently walk on the wall.

Tony let go.

I stuck.

Holy crap, I was sticking to the walls! “Oh my god! Tony, are you seeing this?” I asked, excited. It was an odd angle, but it was so cool!   
“Yeah, kid, I can see.” He smiled. I leaned forward so that way my hands touched the walls too and scurried up so that way I was on the ceiling, sitting down besides the whiteboard. “Hey hey hey, be careful!” He called out. The bed was directly underneath me, so I let myself drop down onto it. It may have gave Tony a mini heart attack, until he realize I did it on purpose my flipping onto my back on the way down, calling out “Woo!”  
“I should not have shown you that you can do that…”  
“What else can I do? How can I do that?”  
“Well, from what you told me, you got bitten by a radioactive spider on a school field trip-”  
“ _A radioactive spider?_ ”  
“Hey, it wasn’t me that got bit. That was all you, underoos. Anyways, from what you’ve told me, you have super strength, heightened senses, can stick to walls, and can jump really high.”  
“Can I shoot webs?”  
“No, but you did make your own web-shooters.”  
“I’m, I’m kinda like a superhero..!”  
“You are.”  
“What?”

Hold on, did Tony just tell me that I was a superhero? “Fun fact that I forgot to mention- this place is the Avengers’ compound, and I don’t know if you remember what the Avengers are or not, but basically we’re the world’s superheros.”  
“Wow, that’s incredible..! What are your powers, Tony?”  
“I don’t have powers like you, but I do have robotic suits that take the place of powers for me. Iron Man, if you will.”  
“That’s so cool! I am Spiderman or something?”  
“Bingo. “  
“Where are the other Avengers? Do they live here?”  
“Yes, but they aren’t here right now. Should be back tomorrow.” Tony smiled, ruffling my hair. “They’ll be excited to see you again.”

We left my room and went off to explore the rest of the compound. Surprisingly, it actually took us a few hours and by the time we were done, it was noon and we were both pretty hungry. So, we decided to take a lunch break and watch a movie. “What do you want to eat, kid? Chinese sound good? I’m not the greatest chef, so if you want good food, take-out is the best option. “  
“Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

 

Tony had FRIDAY order us some lunch while finding Star Wars: Episode IV on the main room’s huge TV. He said that this was one of my favorite movies, and I can see why. The graphics weren’t the best- it was probably an older movie. But hey, that only made it better! For where the compound was located, the food arrived surprisingly fast. Despite me having more food than him, I finished my lunch before Tony, to which he responded by asking me if I were a black hole. 

Eventually, I found my eyelids starting to droop. Maybe it was from the excitement before, but I actually felt really tired and expressed this to Tony. “I don’t blame you,” He said, pulling the blanket that had been draped across the top of the couch where we ate down and handing it to me. “Why don’t you catch some shut eye and then we can blow up my lab. Can’t have you falling asleep while mixing chemicals- what kind of responsible adult would I be?” So, I wrapped myself up in the fuzzy blanket and scooched over towards Tony, who wrapped an arm around me. I felt...safe. It was weird, but I felt secure with Tony here. I know he said that he wasn’t technically my father, but, well, it did feel like that. Before I knew it, I had begun to drift off.

_I opened my eyes, a crushing weight on top of me. It felt like I was being crushed by a building. Wait-_

There was a building on top of me.

_I couldn’t breath- it felt like my lungs were collapsing in on themselves, like my ribs were about to just snap, like I was about die at any second. I was hyperventilating, tears beginning to stream down my face as I ripped off my mask. Why I had a mask on, I couldn’t remember. Something about.. A bird? Hawk? No, no that wasn’t right… Vulture? Yeah, yeah that was right. Vulture… what’d he do?_

_Oh god, it hurt so bad. It was as though I was a bug getting squashed under a shoe. I had to get out of here, the pain was driving me insane already. “Okay, ready…!” I murmured to myself as I began to try and lift myself up. My muscles screamed as I cried out in pain, collapsing. “Hello?!” I was desperate. Am I going to die here? I can’t. I can’t! I’m terrified. I’m going to die here all alone and no one will know._

_“HELLO!” I screamed again, though it wasn’t like anyone would hear me. Although I couldn’t move, I could feel myself shaking as violently as my breathing. “P-Please, I’m down here!... I’m down here and I’m stuck… I’m stuck and I can’t move!”_

_I tried reaching out for anything, but let my arm fall. Even just that movement was too much. I wanted to give up, but even that was so terrifying. I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die! Not here, I still have so much to do. There’s… there’s people, I don’t know who, but I can’t leave them..! I can’t disappoint him… I can’t leave her! But I...can’t...move!_

I woke up screaming, trembling, and crying just how I was in my dream. It…. It felt too real to be just a dream. I curled myself up into a ball, pulling at hair and sobbing into my knees. I couldn’t breathe, I could still feel the crushing gravel and cement on top of me, restricting my movements. I wanted out, I wanted to go home..! I felt someone jump, startled, and try to wrap their arms around me. “NO!” I cried. Was it Vulture? I can’t remember who he is, but I know he tried to kill me. Was this him? Trying to finish the job?   
“Hey, hey. Shh, it’s okay, kid. You’re alright,” Their arms felt as heavy as the cement hell I just woke up from. I looked up to see who it was, to see where I was, and saw Tony looking down at me with a fearful expression to match my own. I was… okay. That Vulture guy wasn’t here, it was just Tony. We were, we were on the couch where we had been watching Star Wars. Must’ve fallen asleep..

“T-Tony?...” I managed in between shaky breaths. “I… “ I was tempted to look around, but didn’t break eye contact with Tony. Tears still flowed from my eyes at a steady pace and I bit down on my bottom lip to try and prevent myself from sobbing like a child, but that wasn’t so easy when you couldn’t control your breathing.  
“Yeah, yeah it’s me,” Tony reassured, forcing a smile before worry took back control over his expression. “It’s Tony, you’re okay. I’m right here, you’re safe. I promise.” And with that, I basically collapsed into the other, my face pressed up against his chest and my hands gripping on his shirt as if my life depended on it. Tony ran his hand up and down my back in a soothing manner. “You’re okay, Pete. It’s okay… ”

“I-I-I was so _scared_ …!” I sobbed.  
“I know, but it’s okay. It wasn’t real, Peter. Nothing bad will happen to you.”  
“It..It felt so real, a-and it still does.. I-I can still, still feel it! I don’t understand.. I-It was.. It was crushing me and I c-c-couldn’t get out… I-I thought I was going t-to, to die under th-there..”  
“Shhh, just breathe with me, kiddo. Breathe in for four seconds, hold it for four, and breathe out for four. You think you can do that with me?”

We did the breathing exercise for somewhere between five and ten minutes. It was only when I had calmed down a bit and the crying hiccups had died off did I sit back up, though still curled up into Tony (a bit.) I was able to remember bits and pieces about this “Vulture” guy. I couldn’t connect them yet though, but it was something. Unfortunately, they weren’t the best memories- one was a plane crash on a beach, the other was on a truck, and then the last (and weird one) was some kind of dance. It might have been prom? No, no. Not prom. Homecoming? That sounded right. Maybe Tony knew more about that? Maybe that’s what happened to me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> Sorry this is late, but this guy has been insanely busy recently. I just needed some time to get this and other shit together, sorry. But hey, I can't exactly give you guys content if I can't function, right?  
> Anyways, thanks for sticking around! Any suggestions, just let me know! I _love_ reading your guys' comments.  
>  \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is that what happened? Or something related to that? What you didn’t want to tell me before, that is.”
> 
> “No, no this wasn’t it. This was something different.”
> 
> “Was… was what happened worse?”
> 
> No answer.
> 
> “Tony?”
> 
> “Yeah, it was worse. Much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is kinda a filler chapter. It's also shorter than some of my others, only about 1200 words so...extra sorry. We'll be getting some more plot in the next chapter. Soon, we'll also be getting May up in here and oh **boy** is that going to be fun for Tony! ':D

“You want to talk about it?” Tony asked. I felt him look down where I was curled up. Honestly, no. I didn’t want to talk about that. I didn’t want to remember that… that feeling. I still couldn't tell if that was real or not, and I didn’t want it to be either. If that was how I’d be remembering things, I rather just deal with amnesia. 

“Um.. alright,” I replied hesitantly. If this was some crazy screwed up memory, Tony would know. Right?

“Take your time, Pete. No need to rush. We can always talk about this later, if you want?”

I shook my head “no”- later on, I’d probably be less apt to talk and it wouldn’t be as clear. Might as well get it over with. “No, I, um, I can do it,” Tony nodded in response, giving me the floor. “I.. I woke up and felt like I was being crushed. I didn’t know how I had gotten there, but I, um.. I was stuck under a building. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. I… I thought I was going to die under there- alone. I-I tried calling out for help, but no one could hear me. He was already gone, and I-I didn’t think that the guy that dropped the building on me in the first place would be wanting to get me out of there. I...I think he was trying to kill me, Tony.”

“Who was?” He looked worried, and I guess that was understandable. “You kept saying ‘he’. Who’s ‘he’?”

“I, um, don’t exactly remember. Something to do with birds- a vulture, I think.. All I really know is that he was the reason I was down under there, but I don’t know how or why.”

“So, what you’re saying is that Vulture is the reason you were trapped under a building? Do you know what kind or when this happened?”

“Sometime around a dance-”

“Homecoming?”

“Yeah, actually. I think.” I felt my heart rate pick up a bit again. “W-was this real? Did, did that actually happen?”

Tony, who was visibly distraught- more aggravated than upset- just shook his head. “I don’t know, kid, you never told me about any building collapses. I’m going to find out though.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Tony was clearly mad- was that anger directed towards me? 

“I-I’m sorry, Tony. I shouldn’t have-”

“Peter, don’t. Please.” He sighed, a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not angry or anything with you- I’m pissed at the idea of some bastard dropping a building on my kid. FRIDAY, pull up building collapses in Queens on the day of his homecoming.”

_Searching… I’ve found three results for building collapses in the Queens area on that date. One warehouse from unknown circumstances, an abandoned office that had been scheduled to be torn down, and an apartment building collapsing from a fire._

“Shit.. show me the warehouse. Any camera footage in the nearby area you can hack?”

_Obviously. Pulling it up now, boss.._

We were both visibly hesitant for FRIDAY to play the footage, and I could feel Tony’s grip around me growing a bit tighter. As the video played, a handful of vans drove out of the warehouse and a man in huge mechanical wings flew in, stopping in front of the entrance and detaching himself from said wings before heading inside. The wings proceeded to fly off camera, but I didn’t know where to. The video automatically fast forwarded until there was movement on the screen. Someone drove a car rather recklessly to the entrance and literally flipped out of it before it had even stopped moving. I couldn’t tell who this person was- it looked like some sort of red mask was covering was covering their face. They also seemed to be wearing some kind of red and blue pajamas. Although I didn’t recognize the pj-person, the stream of muttered curses from under Tony’s breath suggested that he did. 

“Who’s that?” I asked. I had a feeling that I knew the answer, but I all I could do was hope I was wrong. Tony didn’t answer, and FRIDAY sped up the video once again. There didn’t seem to be anything happening until the audio came- rumbling. I could see the cracks forming along the structure and it eventually collapsed, causing me to flinch slightly. 

The winged- guy came out; the pj-person didn’t. 

The video fast forward an hour until it played at regular speed again. There was faint shouting, it was hard to make out but I knew what was being said. I just re-lived it, after all.

_Want me to amplify the sound, boss?_

“No, FRI,” Tony replied, nearly immediately. He looked hurt, and almost guilty. Why? It wasn’t like it was his fault. I attempted to express this by lightly pressing myself into his side, noticing then that I’d been shaking a bit. Eventually, the rumble was lifted upward, the only sign of that other person- the only sign of me- was a small red and blue stick-man looking figure underneath it. “Alright, that’s enough. You can turn off the video.” Tony slumped his head into his other hand while I watched the screen fade back to the credits from the movie. I… It was real. That nightmare wasn’t some screwed up product of my imagination, that had actually happened. The first thing I could remember, and that had to be it. How many of them were like that? Why did I remember _that_ of all things? 

Before I worked myself up again, I felt myself being pulled in closer in an one-armed hug fashion by Tony. He was still looking down at his lap, eyes squeezed shut, and mumbling just under his breath. I could hear the steady beats of his heart, and like my own, it too had sped up a bit. 

_Buh-bump, buh bump. Buh-bump. Buh-bump. Buh-bump. Buh-bump... Buh-bump... Buh-bump…_

“I’m sorry I let that happen to you, Peter.” Tony eventually broke the silence.

“I-It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”

“I could’ve been there, to help. So you weren’t alone.”

“You’re here now though.” 

“And so are you. You’ll be lucky if I ever let you out of my sight again.”

There was a pause, and this time it was me who broke the silence. “Is that what happened? Or something related to that? What you didn’t want to tell me before, that is.”

“No, no this wasn’t it. This was something different.”

“Was… was what happened worse?”

No answer.

“Tony?”

“Yeah, it was worse. Much.”

I couldn’t imagine what would be worse than what we just saw. What was worse than being nearly crushed to death by a building? I had a sickening feeling that I was going to find out, just… hopefully not anytime soon. I’d rather be remembering things like school trips or that spider-bite thing. Maybe I wrote about it in a journal or something? Though, I could be hoping for a little much there. What about a cell phone? If I had a phone and Tony has it (or at least some of the information on it backed up somewhere), I could go through pictures and text messages to try and jog my memory. Maybe not entirely, but.. I want to know who I am. Who my friends are, who my family is. I know Tony was saying that we weren’t technically related, but.. I don’t know, he does feel like it.

“Alright, what do you say we go blow some things up in the lab now to get out that shit-fest that just happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> Sorry this is late, I've been really busy. Anyways, thanks for being patient! This is really fun to work on and all y'all's support is fantastic. Also, I'm changing updates from Friday to Sunday, just because it's easier to have a few days on the weekend to work on this. I like how I wrote like three mini-fics before finishing writing this chapter too. Hhahahhahahah I procrastinate.   
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I don’t want to go… I don’t want to go….!” I could feel my eyes watering up as I see bits of my hand just blow away. I was terrified. It was going to be okay though, right? It had to be. I can’t go, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t !_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _“Mr Stark, please…!” I felt a few tears roll down my face and I could hear Tony’s heart rate picking up. He was scared too. He didn’t know how to fix this. “Please… I don’t want to go…!”_
> 
>  
> 
> _He laid me down on the reddish orange sand as I lost all feeling in my arms and couldn’t hold on to him anymore. Were they even still there? For a moment, I almost began to accept my fate. What could I do?_
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> **And if you die, well…. That’s on me, and I don’t want that on my conscious.**  
>   
> 
> _“I’m sorry…” I whispered. With that, I watched Tony’s horrified face as I faded away._
> 
>  
> 
> “Peter!”
> 
> And then I was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter ended up with a nice and sad ending that's been bound to occur at some point. I mean, c'mon. Y'all should've expected this at some point with this fic being how it is. Don't worry, chapter seven will be sickeningly sweet and I promise we'll get May in soon. She needs to see her nephew and beat Tony's ass for not telling her sooner.
> 
> Also, this is the longest chapter yet (8 pages in google docs), so yay!

After grabbing a bag of potato chips from one of the kitchen cupboards, Tony lead me to the a hallway of labs (different than the one Mr Banner was in) and let the ID scanner besides the door scan hand before it opened up. When we stepped in, my jaw dropped a little bit. “Woah, this is so cool!” Look at all this stuff! Ah man, the possibilities are endless with this kind of equipment! There beakers of every shape and size with all different kinds of chemicals lined up in transparent cabinets along with every kind of science tool under the sun.

“I’m certainly glad you still like it,” 

“How could I not? This stuff looks awesome!”

“Yeah, it is kind of awesome. You have your own lab for Spider-Man things, incase you ever want to work on something. This is just the dicking around in lab.” 

“Wait, really? Holy crap, that’s so cool!”

“You earned it, kiddo, even if you don’t remember why. Now what do you want to blow up first?”

We spent the next few hours trying out all the different chemical combinations we could think of. A few times, Tony would quickly build something and then I’d have to figure out how to destroy it with only a few different supplies. It was a challenge, but a fun one no less. We only stopped for a quick dinner break- some delicious pizza that took way too long to arrive- before going right back to the lab to pick up where we left off. It came to the point where our fried brains were too tired to come up with any new ideas, so we decided to end the night with a nice and relaxing movie night and popcorn. I was hesitant to stop at first, but the promise of a fluffy blanket was enough to get me out of there. 

We settled in on the couch with some popcorn and a soft blanket. It'd been a long day, but after the nap from earlier today, I'd didn't exactly want to fall asleep. That's not exactly something I was eager to go through again. After all, if I'm going by what Tony said earlier, there are worse memories that I don't want to imagine. “So, what movie are we gonna watch?” I asked before having a handful of popcorn. 

“Well, there's this one show that you've made me watch a few times on Netflix, so I was thinking that. It's called The Office, if that rings any bells?” 

Unfortunately, it didn't. “No, sorry..” Before Tony could tell me to stop apologizing, I continued. “So, what's it about?” 

“It’s basically a sitcom about people who work in an office- not really sure how else to explain it. You liked it once, I'm sure you'll like it again.” Tony picked up the popcorn bowl to drape the blanket across us before setting it back down. I have to admit, the show didn't sound all that interesting the way Tony described it. After all, how interesting can an office be? 

Apparently, very interesting and absolutely hilarious. 

Tony said that he skipped the first four seasons because “that's when it started getting good”, so it took me a few episodes to get a grasp on the characters and their names (with a little help from Tony, of course). Although it was stimulating, I could feel myself slowly losing my focus on it and my eyes getting heavy. I yawned a few times and Tony pulled me closer to him so that I was leaning against his side. After all the crap that's happened today, it was nice to feel, well, at ease. Safe. There was so much to take in, but now I felt like I didn't have to think about it. Just mindless entertainment. Despite my efforts, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier to the point where keeping them open became a challenge. Eventually, I let them win and shut my eyes. Just for a few minutes though, it's not like I'm going to fall asleep or anything. Just a little worn down, that's all. Yeah... That's all...

 

_My surroundings were hard to distinguish- it didn't look like anywhere around here. The sky looked like it was on fire and I couldn't see when the sky became the ground. I was by myself, there was no one in sight. It might've been peaceful if I didn't have a pit in my stomach telling me something was wrong and that there was danger. Suddenly, what sounded like a finger snap echoed all around and a gust of wind began to blow through. There's something wrong with it though- you're not supposed to be able to see the wind, but there was something in it blowing my direction. I began walking towards it when I got caught up in it._

_It was all dust._

_I don't know why, but the sight of it sent a wave of panic rushing through me. It began to swirl around me, the wind's whistles getting louder and louder. I covered my ears to try and block it out and squinted my eyes when it's started to get in them too. It kept getting closer,_

_And closer,_

_And closer,_

_And closer._

_It was suffocating._

I shot awake with a sharp inhale, disorientated at first until I got a hold of my surroundings. I was- I was in what was apparently my room. I thought I fell asleep on the couch last night? Tony must’ve moved me back into here. I laid back down with a sigh. Holy hell, this bed was comfortable. I could almost fall back asleep..

No. Nope, no thanks. 

Morning light shone in from the cracks in between the curtains, directly in my eyes, as I sat up and swung my legs over the side of my bed with a yawn. 

_Good morning, Peter._

The voice startled me, but then I realized that it was just Karen. It was weird to think that I had my on AI, but also pretty cool. I’m kind of sad that I don’t remember her- she seems really nice! “G’morning, Karen.” I replied, my words slurred a bit from just waking up. I had to refrain myself from asking how she slept as I walked over the the vanity on top of my dresser and brushed my rather messy bed head. 

_Did you sleep well?_

“Um, yeah. It, uh, was okay. Thanks.”

_Glad to hear it. Mr Stark is in the kitchen with breakfast whenever you’re ready._

“Oh, okay. Could you tell him that I’ll be there in a few minutes please?”

 _Of course._ She paused. _He says to take your time._

After finishing up trying to tame my curls, I brushed my teeth in the bathroom attached to my room (which kind of hurt to be in from how bright it was) before walking out to where the kitchen was. Thankfully, I didn’t get lost. That was always a good sign, right? “G’morning, T’ny,” I greeted once I got in there. 

“Mornin’ there, Underoos,” He replied, glancing up from the pan. “Next time, try to at least get through a season with me before passing out.”

“Sorry..”

 

“As you should be,” Tony teased. “Almost done with your stack, just pick a chair for now.”

I sat down at the island in the middle of the kitchen that had been previously set and accompanied by butter and syrup. Not a few minutes later did Tony set a mountain of pancakes in front of me and gave himself three. “Alright, dig in.” 

As we ate, the world around me began to just feel… odd. Fuzzy, almost. Like I wasn’t really there. I tried not to focus on that feeling but instead on the stack of pancakes in front of me. They were really good, especially with the fountain of syrup the fell down them. Even though I had at least twice as much food as Tony, I still finished just before him. Okay, I was hungry. At least I knew I wasn’t going to get fat, because if yesterday was anything to go off of, I’d be feeling snacky again in an hour. Yay for fast metabolism, boo for probably eating Tony out of house and home.

“You were hungry,” Tony smirked as I got up to put my dirty plate away. 

“Maybe a little bit,” I responded, going over to the sink and rinsing off the syrup. “Um… where’s the dishwasher again?” There were a lot of cabinets in this kitchen- it was hard to remember which one had what in it in day. If only some kind of muscle memory could resurface with that. Tony stood up with his plate and set it down on the kitchen counter before pulling down on the handle of what I thought was a drawer but instead actually what I had been looking for. 

“Right here, kid.”

“Ohhhh, okay. Thanks.”

“I’ll put those away, why don’t you grab the butter and syrup from the table now. M’kay?”

“Alright,” I walked over to the table and did just that. I picked up the bottle of syrup and butter and walked back over to Tony, opening my mouth to ask where I should put them before I tripped on a chair leg and went falling forwards face-first. I heard Tony, who had turned around just in time to see me fall, shout a swear as I fell into him. Well, that was certainly better than breaking my nose on the kitchen tiles, but they way he had caught me felt unsettlingly familiar. What happened in the police station yesterday morning began happening again- the world was slowly going red around me. I couldn’t stop it and Tony’s voice began to get more and more distant. My breathing picked up and-

_I looked around where we stood- it was silent. Four people just….died. They turned to dust, and it was all in the air. I felt myself shaking and just stared down at where Dr Strange had been. I.. I wanted to help, I thought maybe I could help, but I couldn’t. I can’t remember who he was, but I know that he’s dead now. Half the universe is dying right now, it could be anyone. Families could be getting ripped apart right now with no idea what was happening or why. Everyone they love just turning to dust right in front of them. No explanation or way to help, just gone in a blink of an eye. But why, why was this happening? How was this happening? Who was doing this? I don’t...I don’t understand!_

_What if it was May?_

_Who was May? Why am I so scared thinking that she could be dead? Why am I about to start crying on the spot thinking that when we get back, she could be a pile of ash too? Who was we, and where are we? All I can see around me in a reddish-orange planet and light in the sky. I turn to Tony, my heart about to burst out of my chest at any second now from fear. He’s a wreck too, we all are. Suddenly, a sixth-sense like feeling sends a wave of panic crashing into me._

_**Danger.** _

_**Run.** _

_**Get away from the danger.** _

_**Don’t die.** _

_**You’re going to die.** _

_**Run.** _

_**Survive.** _

_**Death is coming.** _

_**Soon.** _

_**Too soon.** _

_**Now.** _

_“Mr Stark?” I felt my voice waver as I stumbled back. I wanted to scream and cry out in terror, but it was caught in my chest. “I… I don’t feel so good…” I felt my heart rate picking up to an unhealthy pace as every fiber of my being screamed “danger”, looking down at my now numb fingertips. I shouldn’t have done that- what I saw gave me a heart attack. My trembling hands had begun to literally fall apart. I was.. I was like them, I was starting to turn to ash. No, no. This can’t be happening… They all just turned to dust instantly, why is this different. It… It hurt so bad. I could feel my body trying to recreate what’s starting to disappear and it hurt worse than being crushed by a building._

_“You’re alright,” Tony told me. For a second, I believed him. Then, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore._

_“I-I-I don’t… I-I don’t know what’s h-happening-!”_

_I fell forward onto him and held on as if my life depended on it. Did it?_

_I don’t know what to do. I feel like a scared little kid who just wants his mom._

_Am I going to see her again?_

_“I don’t want to go… Please, sir! I don’t want to go….!” I could feel my eyes watering up as I see bits of my hand just blow away. I was terrified. It was going to be okay though, right? It had to be. I can’t go, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t !_

_“Mr Stark, please…!” I felt a few tears roll down my face and I could hear Tony’s heart rate picking up. He was scared too. He didn’t know how to fix this. “Please… I don’t want to go…!”_

_He laid me down on the reddish orange sand as I lost all feeling in my arms and couldn’t hold on to him anymore. Were they even still there? For a moment, I almost began to accept my fate. What could I do?_

_**And if you die, well…. That’s on me, and I don’t want that on my conscious.** _

_“I’m sorry…” I whispered. With that, I watched Tony’s horrified face as I faded away._

“Peter!”

And then I was back, same as before the world turned, except now Tony and I were on the floor. It was tile, not sand. Not dirt, just tile. It was okay, I was okay. “T-Tony?...” I whimpered. He was gripping the sides of my arms and kneeling in front of me with almost a parent-like concern. I couldn’t help pawing at myself to make sure I was still there and not turning into dust as Tony sighed in relief, shutting his eyes and his grip getting tighter.

“Jesus fuck, Pete. You gave me a heart attack….! What the hell happened?”

“I… E-e-everything went red,” I stuttered, still trying to recover from _what the hell happened_. “I-I wasn’t- w-we weren’t here, i-it was s-somewhere else… T-they all j-just disa-d-disappeared and I didn’t u-understand. I did-didn’t understand a-and then it s-started happening to me..!”

“Peter-”

“I-It hurt, Tony. It hurt _so much_! I-I couldn’t feel anything, but… b-b-but I could feel a-all of it j-j-just falling apart!” I grabbed on to his arms as well and leaned my head against his chest, unable to breathe. “I-I-I’m s-so sorry, I-I tried, but I-I wasn’t strong enough….!”

I felt one of Tony’s hands hesitantly remove itself from my forearm and begin to stroke my curls, humming softly and soothing my cries. “Shh, it’s okay, Pete. You don’t have to be sorry, it… it wasn’t your fault, kid. You were so strong, and I’m so proud of you. 

You know that, right? I’m so proud of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> So, with Peter's PTSD, sorry if there's something about it different from how you experience it or anything, I'm just basing it off my knowledge and experiences with flashbacks and nightmares about bad memories. Anyways, I hope y'all know that I deadass started sobbing while writing that last scene. I'm not shitting y'all, I rewatched the scene on YouTube and as I wrote, the floodgates fuckin' burst.  
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sudden ding of an elevator arriving on the floor was surprising, causing me to jump a little. “Looks like they’re here,” Tony said, standing up from where we’d be sitting. “Remember, they’re going to be surprised that you’re here. I’ll do my best to make sure you’re not bombarded with questions.” 
> 
> “Tony? You in here?” Someone called out, headed our way. When I stood up, I saw four very intimidating looking new people in the room. Their eyes soon landed on me, all looking very shocked.
> 
> “Peter?” A woman with light blonde hair broke the silence.
> 
> “Alright, don’t freak out,” Tony began. “He-”
> 
> “What the hell, Stark?”
> 
> “Is he real?”
> 
> “How’d you get him back?”
> 
> “Where the hell are the others?”
> 
> “Where were you, Peter?”
> 
> “Are they okay?”
> 
> “Why are you the only one?”
> 
> “Shut it!” Tony shouted, silencing the loud wave of questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm supposed to be sleeping right now so I don't get sick(or sicker), but screw it. I'm writing.

Eventually, I was able to calm down. Well, calm to the point where I was able to breathe again after I’d ran out of water in my eyes. I just felt so… overwhelmed. I couldn’t get it out of my head, and whenever I would close my eyes for even a second, I could see it all again. I had so many questions, but I knew that I didn’t want the answers to them. What did I want? Well.. I don’t know. Maybe to just feel safe? It was hard to tell. I felt the hand that’d been rhythmically going through my hair slow down a bit. It was still there, just less. “How you feeling, kiddo?”

“I.. I don’t know,” I admitted. There was just so much all at once and it was hard to distinguish the various individual emotions from each other. 

“That’s alright, you take your time,” Tony hummed. I could tell that it was affecting him similarly- the panic and clinging on- and just wanted to stay like this until we were both able to forget about what _that_ was. “We should probably get off the floor soon though. It doesn’t have to be right now, but eventually.” I nodded slowly in response, and then deafening silence returned to the room.

“Was it real?” My throat felt tight as I asked this question.

Tony stayed quiet for a second before sighing lightly, “Yeah.. Yeah, it was. I’m sorry, kid. I--” He stopped, and I heard him harshly clear his throat. “I was hoping that you wouldn’t remember it like this. Did...did you want to, um, talk about it?”

“No… I don’t,” I shook my head. “Not right now..”

“Okay, alright. We don’t have to, we can wait. At some point though, we will.”

“I-I know, just... not right now.”

“Do me a favor and let me know if something like that happens again to you, alright? I promise I’ll be there for you and to help you through it.”

“Thank you..”

There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between us to stand up then, Tony first and then him helping me up. I was still pretty shaken up about it, but I couldn’t just sit on the kitchen floor forever now, could I? I wish I could, but that unfortunately was not how life worked. "You okay? You did take a pretty nice fall there, kid." Tony asked me, both effectively changing the topic and presenting more parental-concern. 

"Y-yeah, yeah. I'm okay," I reassured, though the man still seemed to be doing a once over of me to make sure there were no bruises or broken bones. Once he seemed to be satisfied that there weren't any injuries, he nodded and picked up what I had been trying to put away and handed them to me. 

"You want to try this again?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. "Or should I?"

“I can do it,” I took the butter and syrup bottle from Tony. “Thanks though. I’ll, um, watch where I step this time.”

“Alright, just remember that I may not be able to catch you this time. I’ll try, but,” He shrugged, proceeding to finish cleaning up the mess from earlier. It didn’t take us too long, maybe ten minutes at max. After I finished my half and was waiting for Tony to finish cleaning the pan, I lifted myself up to sit on the freshly cleaned kitchen island. I heard his phone buzz on the other side of the counter-top , reaching over and handing it over to him. “Thanks,” He said, reading whatever notification had come up. “Hey kid, remember those people I mentioned yesterday? Avengers?”

“Uh-huh, what about them?” I asked.

“Well, they just texted me,” Tony explained, setting his phone down again. “They said that they’re going to be coming back here in an hour or two. You think you’re up for meeting them? If not, we can go hide out somewhere until they leave. It’s your choice, Underoos, and whatever you pick is perfectly fine with me.”

I thought about it for a moment, subconsciously tugging on the end of my shirt as I did, before coming up with an answer. “Um… yeah, yeah. It might be fun to meet them.” Besides, it might help me jog my memory or at least distract me from the memory jogging that’s already occurred to today. 

“You sure?” Tony asked, giving a really dad-looking eyebrow raise. Damn, I really need to figure out what that whole story is. “Because you really don’t have to if you’re not up to it. I wouldn’t mind keeping you to myself anyways.”

“Yeah, I’m sure, Tony,” I reassured with a head nod.

“Alright then. You should probably get cleaned up, or at least a shower and out of your pjs,” He gestured to my sweatpants and baggy shirt. “I’ll be doing the same, so don’t think I’m just picking on you.”

“I get it don’t worry.”

“Good. I’m going to go do that since beauty does take time to prepare,” Despite that it was a clear joke, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a little bit of truth in that. “I’ll just be in my room which is right across from your’s. If you need me, feel free to just walk on in or ask FRI to have me come to you.”

“Gotcha, thanks,” I replied. “I’ll probably shower now too. “ With that, I slid off the counter and we walked down the hall to our rooms, separating at the doors. 

“Remember, if you need something, don’t hesitate to ask,”

“I won’t.” I shut the door halfway behind me after walking in, hearing over to my dresser and picking out a comfy looking pair of jeans and a white shirt with a math joke on it saying “find x” with it circled in red. I brought them into the bathroom with me and set them on the sink before stripping and running the water. God, that hot water felt amazing. I felt like I could just stand under it for hours, but surprisingly was only in there for roughly twenty-five minutes. There was a little thing of gel in their, and I did my best to style my wet hair with it after getting dressed. I asked FRIDAY to let Tony know that I’d be out in the main room and proceeded to head over there. I didn’t know this place well enough yet to know what there was for me to do, so I decided that some mindless TV wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world. Plus, I got to practice some wall-walking on my way in there.

It wasn’t too long when Tony plopped on the couch besides me, casually slinging an arm over my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. He sighed dramatically as he saw what was on the screen, “Seriously, kid? You’re watching The Price Is Right of all things? How old are you?”

“It’s actually not that bad,”

“Oh, I beg to differ.”

The sudden ding of an elevator arriving on the floor was surprising, causing me to jump a little. “Looks like they’re here,” Tony said, standing up from where we’d be sitting. “Remember, they’re going to be surprised that you’re here. I’ll do my best to make sure you’re not bombarded with questions.” 

“Tony? You in here?” Someone called out, headed our way. When I stood up, I saw four very intimidating looking new people in the room. Their eyes soon landed on me, all looking very shocked.

“Peter?” A woman with light blonde hair broke the silence.

“Alright, don’t freak out,” Tony began. “He-”

“What the hell, Stark?”

“Is he real?”

“How’d you get him back?”

“Where the hell are the others?”

“Where were you, Peter?”

“Are they okay?”

“Why are you the only one?”

“Shut it!” Tony shouted, silencing the loud wave of questions. He had placed a protective hand on my shoulder and pulled me a little closer. “Don’t overwhelm the kid, got it?” Silence again. “First of all, yes, he’s real. I’m not about to go make some robot of my kid, of course he’s real. Second, I don’t know how he’s back. He doesn’t either. With that said, we don’t know where the others are either or if they’re okay or not.”

“How long have you had him?” A tall blonde man asked. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Easy, Rogers. I just found him yesterday in Queens.” Tony’s voice then changed from defensive to soft. “The kid doesn’t remember shit, so I’ve been trying to help him out.”

“Have you told his-” 

“No, not yet, “ Tony cut off the shorter blonde man. “I will though.”

“Told who?” I asked. 

“I’ll tell you later, kiddo.” He pat my shoulder a few times. “For now, allow me to reintroduce you to them.” He pointed at each of them and listed off names- there was Steve, Clint, Natasha, and Thor. Thor had to be the most intimidating looking of them all. Apparently, he was a freaking Norse god, so that’d explain it. A god! That was insane! 

“It’s, um, really nice to meet you all,” I smiled. “Or, well, re-meet. Sorry I don’t really remember any of you.”

“Don’t apologize, son,” Mister Rogers (I’m pretty sure Tony said his last name was that) said. “It’s good to have you back. We missed you.”

Silence followed that as we all moved to sit on the couch, and I found myself unable to stop eyeing the hammer Thor continued to fiddle with.

“Stark’s son, do you care to try lifting my hammer?” Thor asked, turning to me. Crap, he must have saw me staring.

“Uhhh…”

“The kid could probably do it,” I heard Natasha whisper to Clint.

“Mister Stars and Stripes over here couldn’t, you think he can?” He responded.

“Ten bucks says he can.”

“You’re on.”

 

“Hey,” Tony put a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of eavesdropping and causing me to jump a little. “Easy kid, it’s just me. Look, you don’t have to try if you don’t want to. It’s just a little game they like to play, since only someone _worthy_ like Point Break there is able to lift the stupid hammer.”

“I mean, there’s no harm in trying,” I shrugged, not before pondering if I’d be embarrassing myself or not. It seemed like only Thor was able to lift it, so I doubt I would be able to. Still, it could be fun. “Have you tried before?”

“Yeah,” Tony smiled. “Got my gauntlet on and everything, and it didn’t budge a bit. But, I think if anyone could, it’d be you, kiddo. If not, then it must mean that humans can’t lift it because you’re way more ‘worthy’ than blondey is.”

I nodded and smiled weakly in return. Tony’s faith in me seemed to just add a lot more nerves than I originally had about this. I wanted to impress him, I wanted to make him proud. I turned to Thor who was tossing it up and down as if it was nothing . “Um, Mister Thor? Is it still okay if I try to pick it up?”

“But of course, Spiderling!” He smiled widely, plopping mjolnir down on the coffee table and gesturing for me to go ahead. I stood up and hesitantly gripped the handle tight with both my hands. Tony mentioned that I had super strength because of being Spider-Man, right? Maybe I could get it to at least wiggle? Yeah, let’s go for a wiggle. I braced myself by keeping one foot behind me, slowly counting to three under my breath.

“Woo-hoo kid!” 

“One…”

“You got this, Pete.”

“Two…”

“Get ready to cough it up, Barton.”

“Three…!” 

I yanked the handle up with all the force I had before feeling something slam into my forehead and my vision went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, lads and lassies (and all y'all pals in between)!  
> I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that this is late, but I had quite a lot of real life shit going down. Sorry. Also, I'm aware that Thor shouldn't have his hammer, but I needed that to be there to write that scene. Hope y'all understand  
> \- <3 Sam  
> (Tumblr: ssssssssssssssssssspiderboi )


	8. Chapter 8

_There was a suffocating darkness around me, almost swallowing me whole. I couldn't breathe, there was just so much nothingness all around like some screwed up sensory deprivation tank. I couldn’t even see my own hands in front of my face-- it was just so empty._

_”What the hell is taking him so long?” A gruff voice asked._

_“You need to have some kind of patience we knew it would take a while” Someone else replied. Whoever the voice was, he seemed calmer than the first one. “It’d be that way for anyone, it’s not Peter’s fault.”_

_I was snapped out of my near-panic state by these voices. They sounded so familiar but I couldn’t name them. I tried calling out to them, but my voice felt like it was stuck in my throat. That is if I still had a voice to use. I couldn’t even see my body let alone feel it._

_”Did he even get back?” It was a woman’s voice this time. I didn’t recognize hers like I could with the other two, even if I couldn’t really name them. “I know you didn’t tell him how risky it was, Strange. I swear if you risked a child’--”_

_”He’s not a child he can handle it..” The second voice, apparently ‘Strange’, said._

_”He’s seventeen you prick!” The woman yelled._

_Who were they? Why, or how, did they know me? What were they even talking about? Where the hell are we?_

_“Remind me again why we let the kid go?”_

_”Peter was the most likely to get back and survive the trip,” Strange answered. “Healing ability aside, though it was a definite factor, he had the strongest connection to the material realm and we needed to take advantage of that. Look, I know he got back. I can feel him, but as I suspected, it didn’t go perfect.”_

_”And what the hell does that mean?” The first voice asked._

_”Something’s… missing. Memory loss is the most likely and ideal scenario, put there is a possibility that a limb or an organ is missing.”_

_“What?!” The other two shouted._

_“It’s not likely but it is a possibility, “ Strange explained. “Memory loss is almost a guarantee, however. It was surprising enough that that didn’t occur during the, erm.. Disassembling. With all of us, that is. The chances of memories being retained upon re-assembling along with traveling the distance from here back to New York is minute. “_

_”So, what you’re telling us is that there’s a chance that Peter has no fucking clue of why he’s there or what happened?”_

_”Unfortunately so. He should eventually remember, if that does happen to be the case, but I don’t know how long that’ll take.”_

_”Jesus Christ…”_

_”He’s our only option, okay? He’s the only plan we’ve got, so let’s just hope that he finds Stark.”_

_“Let’s hope Stark is able to do something, first off.”_

I awoke with a jump, gasping for air and gripping tight onto the sides of the… bed? I was on a bed? I thought we were in the living room. Oh right... the hammer thing. That’s why my head hurt like head. But was that…? It felt real. Why the hell would something like that feel real? Still… it still felt like that empty space was surrounding me. No air, can’t breathe. Can’t breathe…. Can’t breathe--

“Hey, hey, it’s okay Pete,” Tony. Tony was here. “It’s alright, I’m right here. You’re okay.” He was sitting besides me on the bed- my bed, we were in my room- with an arm around my shoulders. I was able to calm down as I began taking in my surroundings. It was okay, I was.. Okay. Fine. Not… yeah. “You okay there, kiddo?”

“Mhm,” I nodded slowly, my head throbbing. “Y-yeah, yeah. I’m, uh, I’m okay. My head sorta hurts though.”

“I don’t blame you,” He chuckled. “You hit your head pretty damn hard there, and really shut everyone up in there.”

“Yeah.. Yeah. I really didn’t think it was going to move,” I admitted.

“If it would move for any of us, it’d be for you. Trust me.”

After a few moments of comfortable silence, I broke the quiet, “Hey Tony, can I ask you something?”

“‘Course, Petey. What is it?”

“Well, you know how you asked me to let you know if anything like, um, this morning happened?”

“Mhm, something happen?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Sorta. I don’t know if it was real or anything, but… It was weird.” I glanced at him for confirmation be continuing. “Um… do you know someone named ‘Strange’?” I felt Tony tense up at that, and while I knew that that could only mean that there was something to this, I still just wanted to apologize and say that it was nothing.

“Uh, yeah,” Tony said before I could say anything. “Yeah, Stephen Strange. You and I actually met him when this whole shit fest started.”

“Where is he?” There was a look on his face that answered my question. “Oh….”

“ Why?” He cleared his throat. “ Did you remember something about him?” 

“I guess so, yeah,” I answered. Was that a memory? It was… weird. Not like the other two memories I’ve unfortunately re-lived. Plus, it sounded like… it almost sounded like they were talking about the present. And me? Was that being self absorbed thinking it was about me? It sounded like it-- talking about finding Tony, my age, and calling their Peter ‘kid’ and ‘the kid’ like how some people here called me. “It was only sound, though. I couldn’t see or feel anything, just hear him and these other two people talking. One of them sounded like a woman.”

“A woman?” Tony asked. “Alright,there’s a few people in mind for who that could’ve been. You said you didn’t see them, right?”

“Right,” I answered.

‘Well… Shit. Well, do you remember what they were saying? You hear any other names?” He tapped a small pattern on my arm. “Just trying to pinpoint the event to give us both a better understanding. We might be able to find a pattern.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Maybe finding a pattern might help me recover more memories? I don’t know how likely that is though. Hopefully, it’d just help me gain a little more context and help Tony help me out. Damn, I really need to read up about amnesia for my own sake. “It’s too early for pattern though, right?”

“I’m... honestly not too sure,” Tony replied. “Bruce would probably know more than me. That first memory seems like something you’d have a nightmare or something about,” Did he wince a little? “I, uh, remember you talking about having some before. The other one, well… sorry about that, kid. If I did anything to trigger that.”

“It’s okay,” I assured. “Really. I mean, I guess it was bound to happen anyways, so it’s like ripping off a bandage,”

“It amazes me how you’re still trying to be optimistic,” He grinned a little, but there was something, well, sad about it. I’ve been pretty caught up trying to figure out what’s going on with myself, I guess I haven’t really thought about how it must be affecting Tony. “Well, let’s just try unpacking this one. One step at a time, eh?”

“Yeah, good point,” I nodded, then started to explain. “Well, like I said, I couldn’t see anything, but I heard three different people talking. There might’ve been other people there, but if there were, they didn’t say anything.”

“Mhm.”

“Well, that Strange person was telling the other guy to be patient because he was annoyed that someone was taking ‘too long’,” Do I say that I think I might be that someone? Probably. Probably isn’t the best idea to hide anything right now. 

“Could you be any more vague there, kid?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. “C’mon, I’m sure you have specifics. You can tell me me.”

“Well,” I started again, slowly. “I mean, I don’t know what they said word for word, they said that this person was seventeen, but they still called him a kid and stuff.” I paused to see if Tony had anything to comment, but he didn’t say anything. “And, um, Strange said that he knew this person got back to what he called the _’material realm’_ , but it was still going to take a while for anything to happen. He also said that something was missing, he said maybe a limb or organ or… or even memories. “

“Wait, so,” Tony interrupted, brows furrowed. It seemed like he was starting to come to the same conclusion that I was about who this person was by his facial expression. “A limb or organ might’ve gotten loss? That’s what he said? “

“Mhm.”

“Did he say anything that might explain why?”

“Something about, um.. disassembling and, uh, reassembling,” I cleared my throat. “And how it’s weird nothing like the losses happened with the first thing.”

Tony sighed, running a hand down his face and up again once or twice. I stayed quiet as well, not really knowing what to say right now. 

“Okay, Peter,” Tony broke the silence, speaking bluntly, “We both know that you’re the one Strange and the others were talking about. Am I wrong?”

I hesitated. “I did hear my name a couple times.”

“Mhm, ‘course you did.”

“Well, other people are named Peter, too. A-and I don’t want to try and make everything, y’know, ‘bout me.”

He scoffed. “Kid, you got to learn that when there’s shit going on with you, you’re allowed to think about yourself. And just as important, you need to be totally honest with me about this stuff. Not saying that you have to open up to me about everything, but just someone with this shit, okay? There’s a lot at stake, and well…. Honestly, you’re our best chance to fix things.”

“Like what?” I asked. I felt like there was so much that I didn’t know, and honestly, it was getting pretty frustrating. I mean, I probably would know a lot more if it wasn’t for this damn amnesia, but still. “What’s at stake? How many people did _that_ happen to and… And why is it that I’m the chance? You gotta tell me more about what’s happened, Tony.”

“I’m trying to protect you, kid.” Tony spoke loudly. “ I know you don’t think you need protection, but…” He paused. “God damnit, I can’t let anything bad happen to you again. I promised to keep you safe, and I couldn’t do that. I’m not going to screw that up again.”

I didn’t say anything. From what I’ve remembered, and with how he’s been treating me like a child, rough is definitely an understatement. 

“I need to be more honest with you. I know, and I’m sorry I haven’t been.”

“It’s okay, Tony. Really,” I assured. “ I’m.. I’m just a little frustrated.”

“No, it’s not okay,” Tony shook his head. “And you have every right to be. I’d be pissed at me, if I were you. “

“I’m not mad at you,” I explained. “Just in general. With everything and the fact that I just can’t seem to remember anything..!”

“I don’t _get it_ , but I get it. I’m going to fill you in, and tell you everything in time. I’m gonna have to double check with Bruce about how much I can tell you though, just to be safe. Seems like we never really know what can happen lately.”

“Okay, yeah. That sounds good.”

“Before all that though, there’s probably someone you should meet again.”

“Who?”

“Well, you, uh,” Tony paused to clear his throat. “You have some family who doesn’t know you’re back.”

“I do?” I asked. It was weird, but Tony did feel sort of dad-ish, so I kind of forgot about the possibility of an actual family. “Like a mom? Or a dad?” I saw Tony bite his lip, and although I have no memory to them, I still felt a pang in my heart. “Are… did they--”

“Yes, but not the way you’re thinking,” Tony answered, seeming a little uncomfortable. “It’s not really my place to talk about it though, and I don’t really know much about it. You have an aunt, but unfortunately, she’s it. Wonderful woman, don’t get me wrong, but I wish I could give you more. You deserve more, kiddo.”

I wasn’t sure if the fact that my parents, whoever they were, didn’t have what happened to me happen to them was comforting or not. On one hand, I remember how what Mister Strange called the ‘disassembling’ felt and at least they didn’t have to feel that, but on the other hand, they were still gone. I still can’t remember them. I still can’t remember anything.

“What’s her name?” I asked. “My aunt.”

“May,” he answered. “May Reilly Parker. We should probably take you to see her sometime, and soon. I really should’ve called her as soon as you showed up, like I said. You think you’d be up for it? Maybe later tonight or tomorrow morning?”

“Um, maybe tomorrow?” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see my aunt, but I sort of wanted some time to think about what to say first. This woman was my only family, apparently, and she thought I was… dead. What am I even supposed to say? 

“Sure,” Tony nodded while squeezing my shoulders. “Whatever is best for you. That’s what matters, and I’m sure May would understand if you wanted to wait. I can’t imagine this is easy on you.”

“Right, yeah. Thanks.”

There was a knock at the door, attracting both Tony and my attention as we looked over to it. Doctor Banner walked in, carrying a small tablet with a notepad looking app reflected in his glasses’ lens. “So, Peter,” he greeted with a smile. “How’re you feeling?”


End file.
